Washing and drying machine



Aug. 7

D. D. MYERS WASHING AND DRYING MACHINE Filed Oct. 21 2 3 Sheets-Sheet l e 6 o 00 e ss 000000000 4 INVENTOR.

65 Don D- M @115" WW ATTORNEY Aug. 27, 1929. D MY RS WASHING AND DRYING MACHINE Filed Oct. 21 1920 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 0000 OOG i a 00 a w oooooooooiwa 0o0oo00002== m ooooaoonxa oc 000000 09 o oooooooe 0000000 0.

oomoomwoo WBQQE 000 i INVENTOR. D0n D. W en m %&W%;

ATTORNEY .5 of Figure I.

Patented Aug. 27, 1929.v I

UNITED. STATES y i 1,125,995 PATENT, OFFICE.

DON D. kYERS, OF TOLEDO, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH CORPORA- T1011, TOLEDO, OHIO, A. CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

WASHING AND DRYINQIACHINE.

Application filed October 21 1920. Serial No. 418,358.

This invention relates to improvements in' washing machines, and has for its general object the provision of a washer in WhlCh the cage containing the articles to be washed is reo1procated to agitate said articles for washing, and in which the cage is ralsed above the surface of the liquid and rotated to wring the articles by the action of centrifu al force.

1 0t er objects of my invention are:

To provide simple automatic means for accomplishing the above operations; to provide simple means to elevate the cage above the surface ofthe liquid and to automatically connect it so as to rotate it at high speed;

to provide means to raise the cage at a slower rate than it is lowered during the recipro- :ations of the washing operation whereby the power requirements of the machine are made more uniform and also the agitation made more efiicient for washing; to provide means for throwing the mechanism into neutral to-stop the motion of the cage at any time; to provide new and improved means for'attaining the above objects.

Other objects and those relating to simplicity and lightness of structure and econo- .mies of manufacture will appear herein as I proceed with a detailed description of that particular embodiment of my invention which for the purposes of illustration I have shown in the appended drawings, in which,

Figure I is vertical section showing the machine durin' the washing operation, the

' belt shifter being on the pointof shifting the belt to the dotted position to elevate the cae.

igure II shows the machine during the wringing operation, the belt being held in one position. The operating mechanism is shown in elevation.

Figure III'is a section on line 3.3 of Figure I.

Figure IV is a sectional view .on line 4-4 Figure V is asectional view on line 5-5 of Figure II. n

Figure VI is a sectional view on line 6-6 of Figure I.

Figure VII is a plan view of the control latch mechanism. I

Figure VIII is an elevation of the control latch mechanism, showing its three positions.

Similar reference characters refer to simithus renders it unnecessary to have leak proof packing about shaft The shaft 3 is fastened to the cage 2.by means of a centel casting 5 which is secured to the bottom of cage 2 and telescopes over the center guide 4 when the cage is reciprocated up and down.

The driving mechanism for shaft 3 will now be described. Shaft 3 is supported at its lower end by a stepped ulley 10 which is screw threaded upon sha 3 as shown in Figure I. Pulley 10 is supported upon the rotatable member 11 of a thrust bearing 12 by means of a sleeve 13 which may be integral with the pulley 10 as shown. Pulley 10 also is provided with a similar sleeve 14 at its upper end and which engages a thrust bearing 15 when the pulley 10 is thrust upward by the reaction of pulling shaft 3 downward. A loose pulley 17 runs on thesleeve 14 and its weight is supported by a shoulder on pulley 10. A larger loose pulley 16 runs on the lower sleeve 13 and its weight is preferably supported by the rotatable member 11 of the thrust bearing. Pulleys 16 and 17 may be provided with bushings 18' and 19 respectively, as shown in Figure I. The screw pulley 10 has a portion 9 of equal diameter with pulley 17 and a por-, tion 8 of equal diameter with pulley 16. The three pulleys 17, 10, and 16 may be provided with lubricating oil pockets and oil ducts leading from one to the other and with overlapping flanges to direct the oil from one to the other so that all the pulleys and the two thrust bearings 15 and 12 may be oiled from onesource. The oil finally finds its way down into the space20 within the pedestal 21 which supports the thrust bearing 12. The

acts as a stop. to prevent the shaft 3 from further elevation. The shaft 3 with the cage 2 will then be rotated by pulley 10 by the driving connection through the threads. The belt shifting mechanism will now be described.

A motor 30 drives the pulley 10 through a belt drive as shown in Figure III. An auxiliary shaft 31 containing the loose pulleys 32, 33, and 34 is fastened to an arm 35 which is arranged to be pivoted at 36 which pivot is in a horizontal plane including the center of the motor pulley 37 and the center line of shaft 3. (See Figure II.) With this arrangement shaft 31 may swing in asmall are about its pivot 36 without tightening or loosening the belt an excessive, amount. When shaft 31 is in position shown in Figure I, the belt on pulley 34 rotates loose-pulley 16 in one direction and the threaded driving pulley 10 in the opposite direction as shown by the arrow. The driving pulley 10 is thus drawing shaft 3 downward since shaft 3 is prevented from rotating by a means later herein described. Just before the unthreaded portion of shaft 3 engages the driving pulley 10, the direction of rotation of the driving pulley is reversed by shifting shaft 31 upward, which shifts the belt on pulley 16 to the face 8 of driving pulley 10, and the belt on face 9to the loose pulley 17 which belt positions are shown in dottedlines in Figure I. The driving pulley 10 then ro- 35' tates in a direction to ralse shaft 3. A collar 40, rigidly attached to shaft 3 has a Head 41 clamped thereto by means of spring clamps 42. Head 41 also has a stationary guide member 44 (see Figures II and VI) which extends upward from the part 45 of the stationary frame which holds the upper thrust bearing 15. The part 45 may be bracketed to the pedestal 46 which supports the pivot 36, however the bracket is cut away, as shown in Figures II and III,,in

order to show other parts more clearly. Rigidly attached to the head 41 is the extension 50, which slidably supports the shift rod 51 through two adjustable stops 52. The lower end of shift rod 51 reciprocates in a forked end 53 of a rockarm 54 which is also pivoted at 36 where arm 35 is pivoted. The shift rod 51 is provided with two adjustable stops 55 and 56 above and below the fork 53 of rock arm 54. Now when shaft 3 is raised by the drive pulley 10, the col-" 56 and then shift the shaft 31 downward through its is again shi ddownward to the osition shown in full in Figure I and the drive pulley reversed to lower the shaft 3. Thus itis seen that the'shaft 3 with the clothes cage 2 is automatically raised and lowered with the motor running continuously in one direction. This motion of the cage 2 in the hot suds in the tub I accomplishes the washing, the best speed of the reciprocations of the cage being determined by experiment and pivotedarm35. Thus the belt the machine operated accordingly. It will be seen that the driving pulley 10 is run faster when the cage 2 is belng lowered than it is when it is being raised. This gives a less variation of load on the motor as Well as accomplishing a better washing operation.

The wringing operation will now be described.

A lug 61 on the end of arm 35 is adapted to catch in a notch 62 in a flap 63 when the flap is-turned toward the lugby means of the control handle 64. (See Figures II and .VII.) During the washing operation the flap 63 is turned aside by placing the control handle in notch 65 as shown in Figure I. If the control handle is placed in notch 67 (see Figure II) the flap will be turned toward lug 61 and the notch 62 will be in a raised position. Springs 68 attached to the projections 69 on flap 63 (see Figure III) will allow the handle 64 to turn and be placed in notch 67 while flap 63 is being pressed against lug 61 by the force of the springs 68. Now as soon asthe shaft 31 is raised to its high position the lug 61 will snap into the notch 62 and thus the shaft 31 will be retained in its high position and further shifting of the belts prevented. Therefore the shaft 3 will continue to be elevated until cage 2 is beyond the surface of the water (see Figure II) until finally the collar 23 strikes the rotating member 11 of the lower thrust bearing. In the meantime the collar 40 raises head 41 until it strikes the stationary cams 70 on the levers 71 which are pivoted to the stationary part 45 of the but is held from rotating. However when the brake band is released the drum 80 is allowed to rotate with shaft 3. The collar 40 releases the brake a short time before the upward movement of shaft 3 is stopped by the collar 23 at its lower end, and thereafter the cage 2 begins rotating, graduall at first due to the inertia of the cage an clothes and then at the full speed of the drive pulley after collar 23 strikes member -11. The water in the clothes is forced out of the clothes in the cage by centifugal force due to the high speed of rotation.

Afterv the clothes have been sufliciently wrung the control handle is shifted to the notch 66 without turning it enough to release lug 61. This places notch 62 in a position to i hold the lug 61 so that shaft 31 1s midway between its top and bottom positions. When shaft 31 is in this position the belt runs on both the top loose pulley 17 and the bottom loose pulley 16 but not on the drive pulley 10. Therefore the mechanism is in neutral and the motion of shaft 3 will cease. The clothes may then be removed and the cycle of operations repeated. It will be noted that the mechanism may be thrown into neutral at any time during the'washing operation simply by shifting the control handle to the detent notch 66. Then as soon as the lug 61- is moved past its middle position it will snap in the notch 62 andbe held there, thus throwing the belt to neutral position instead of shifting it all the way to reverse drive.

It will be noted that when shaft 3 is rotated by drive pulley 10 to lower it from the drying position that the weight of the clothes, cage and shaft is sufficient to-cause shaft 3 to descend'as well as rotate in the opposite direction. When the cage descends from its drying position the collar 40 on releasing the bent lever drum 80 and prevent further rotation of shaft 3. When collar 40 descends until it contacts with the springclamps 42 it rides over the upper beveled edges of clamp 42 thus pressing them apart until it snaps into position in the grooves in the clamps. The

- machine will then begin the reciprocating tail a certain form of mechanism for imparting a reciprocating motion to the-cage 2 during the'washing operationand a rotary motion when control handle 64 is thrown in i the detent notch 65. I

While I have shown and described in demotion during the wringing operation other automatic forms of mechanism may be de visedor this form have various improvements and modifications without. departlng I from the scope of'my invention. Various other modifications than the particular .embodiment illustrated will be obvious to those skilled in the art and the scope ofmy invention is defined by the appended claims.

What I claim is: i

1. In=a washing machine, a vessel for containing a fluid; a clothes cage movable within said vessel; a single control handle adapted to be set in a plurality of positions;

means to drive said machine; means controlled by the position of said handle to allows brake band 79 to grip means, raising and rotating means and sai lowerin means, being controlled by the po-v sition 0 said handle.

2. In a washing machine, in combination a vessel for, containing a fluid; a clothes cage movable within said vessel; and meansfor reciprocating said cageat a uniform speed u and a uniform speed down for agitatin t e clothes within said cage.

3. n a washing and wringing machine in combination a vessel for containin a wash-, ing fluid; a clothes cage movab e within said vessel; means actuated by a uniformly actuated power source for reciprocating said cage in a substantially vertical direction at a greater speed one" direction than in the other for the purpose of washing the clothes in said cage; means to raise said cage above the washing fluid; and means to rotatesaid cage when so raised to wring the clothes therein by centrifugal force.

y 4. In a-washing machine, in combination, a vessel for containing a fluid;- a clothes cage movable within said vessel, and means for reciprocating said cage at a uniform speed up and at a greater uniform speed down for agitating the clothes within said cage.

5. In a washing machine, in combination, avessel for conta ning a fluid, a clothes cage movable within said vessel, a screw threaded:

means to -move said cage up and down, a

said

means assoclated with said casing and receptacle and adapted to cause reciprocation and rotation of said casing during different stages in the operation of the mechanism.

7. In a washing machine, the combination of a liquid containing receptacle, a perforated casing positioned within said receptacle and adapted to have vertical reciprocatory movement therein, mechanism for recipro eating said casing, mechanism for rotating. said casing, single power means adapted to actuatesaid mechanism to cause reci rocation of the casing within the receptac e and rotation of the casing within the receptacle, and control means for establishing connection between the power means and said mechanism.

' 8. In a washing and wringin machine, a vessel-for containmg a fluid; a ase for an porting said vessel; a clothes cage movab e in said vessel; a central shaft for sup orting 'said cage; means to raise said sha untll said cage is above the fluid in said. vessel; means to rotate said shaft and cage to wring the-clothes thereinby centrifugal force; a bearin for said shaft attached to said vessel and a second bearing for said shaft attached to said base.

In testimony whereof, I aflix my signature.

DON 1). MYERS. 

